


perfect

by ProfessorSpork



Category: Wicked - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Friendship, Phone Calls & Telephones, Pre-Relationship, Roommates, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2019-09-12 00:39:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16862974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProfessorSpork/pseuds/ProfessorSpork
Summary: When Glinda calls at 3:30 AM asking for a ride home... well. It's not like Elphaba's going to turn her down.





	perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Tumblr on March 27, 2016.
> 
> Prompt: "Things you said on the phone at 4 AM."

It’s 3:30 AM when Elphaba is awoken by the buzzing of her cell phone.

Blearily, she picks her head up from her desk and reaches for it. Drunk dials from Glinda aren’t her favorite thing—frankly, with how often Glinda chooses to forgo pockets or a purse in favor of just keeping her phone in her bra, half of them aren’t even intentional—but at least this one has saved Elphaba from spending an entire night sleeping on top of her Life Sciences textbook.

Not that that will stop her from reprimanding her roommate.

“Do you have any idea what time it is?” she demands, her harshness somewhat mitigated by her sleepy tone.

She expects to hear a babbling reply, or perhaps the loud throb of muffled music, or both.

She does not expect tear-filled sniffling. “E-Elphie?”

(If she wasn’t completely awake before, she is now.)

“Glinda?” she prompts, trying not to give away her sudden panic. “What? What’s happened?

"I—can you come get me, please?”

She’s already shoving her feet into her boots and grabbing for her keys. “Where are you? Three Queens still?”

Elphaba infers from the pause before Glinda’s “yes” that Glinda had first nodded her head in the most pathetic way possible, only to belatedly remember Elphaba couldn’t see her.

“Don’t move,” Elphaba orders. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Okay,” Glinda says, quiet enough to break your heart.

“Do you want me to stay on the phone?”

“No, I—I just…”

“It’s fine, that’s fine, you can tell me when I get there. Ten minutes,” she reiterates. A promise.

* * *

When Elphaba pulls up outside the still-roaring party, she finds Crope and Tibbett sitting on either side of Glinda, keeping her company on the curb. Glinda doesn’t seem to be crying outright any longer, which eases Elphaba’s worry slightly.

Tibbett stands when Elphaba gets out of her car. “We offered to walk her home, but she said you were already on your way.”

“Her knight of verdant visage,” Crope teases. Elphaba flips him off.

“That’ll be all for tonight boys,” she says, only adding “…Thank you,” when Glinda shoots her a Look.

Elphaba doesn’t know what to do with the way Glinda curls in on herself the second she’s buckled into the passenger seat. It’s so unlike her that Elphaba finds herself immediately assuming the worst.

“Do I have to go inside?”

Glinda blinks, the question bringing her back to herself. “Whatever for?”

“I’m not starting this car if there is unfinished business inside. If someone—touched you—”

“Oh, Elphie, no,” Glinda insists, looking mortified. “No one laid a finger on me.”

Elphaba lets out a breath, long and slow, that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Glinda reaches across the center console to entwine her fingers with Elphaba’s atop the gearshift.

“I fought with Pfannee and Shenshen, that’s all,” Glinda explains once they’re on the road.

Elphaba thinks back. That explains Glinda’s need for a ride, at least, but—when the two other giggling girls had come to pick Glinda up hours ago, they’d seemed in the best of spirits. It was actually why Elphaba had elected to stay home, despite Glinda’s pleading for her to come out with them—she hadn’t wanted to intrude.

“What about?”

“…You.”

She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Glinda—”

“Well they’re wrong! I don’t know how you stand it, the things people say about you, it makes me  _livid_ , I—” Glinda stops. Forces herself to take a breath. “I wish I didn’t cry when I get angry. It undermines my arguments in the worst way.”

“I’m sure you were very intimidating.”

Glinda glares at her sharply. “Are you mocking me, Miss Elphaba? After I so heroically came to your defense?”

Elphaba bites back a smile. “I would never.”

Despite herself, Glinda snorts in the most unladylike manner. “Well that is a bold-faced lie, but I suppose I’ll allow it. Just this once.”

“How magnanimous.”

* * *

It’s past 4 by the time Elphaba tucks Glinda into bed.

Glinda buries herself in downy comfort, then smiles up beatifically. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

“I’m not sure I would call it a rescue.”

“I would,” Glinda says firmly, and her serious expression contrasted with the way she’s positively dwarfed by her own pillows and blankets nearly makes Elphaba laugh out loud.

“Fresh dreams, Glinda.”

She makes it about halfway to her bed before her phone rings in her pocket. She takes it out— _Glinda calling_.

Turning slowly, Elphaba raises an eyebrow at her roommate, who has her cell tucked innocently against her shoulder. “Seriously?”

“It’s rude not to answer your phone.”

“We are _already talking_. What?”

Glinda blushes. “I can’t, I’m too embarrassed to say it in person. It has to be over the phone.”

Begrudgingly—and perhaps the littlest bit charmed—Elphaba answers the call and lifts her cell to her ear. She notes with no small amount of annoyance that her heart is pounding. Foolish. As if there were anything Glinda would actually say worth getting worked up over. “Yes?”

“Could you… stay here tonight? Maybe?”

Except for this one thing.

“I sleep literally seven feet away from you,” she says into her phone.

“Elphaba. Please.”

Their eyes lock. Elphaba doesn’t stand a chance. As if on autopilot, she hangs up and kicks off her shoes, slipping wordlessly under Glinda’s held-open comforter. “Happy?”

Glinda slides into Elphaba’s embrace, fitting under her arm and against her bony shoulder like a key into a lock. Elphaba runs her hand down Glinda’s back, repeating the motion when it earns a small hum of satisfaction from Glinda. “Couldn’t be happier.”

“I apologize if I make a poor pillow,” Elphaba whispers into the dark, suddenly hyper-aware of every gawky angle. She shouldn’t  _be_  here, she—

“Mmmm, no, you’re perfect,” Glinda mumbles, pressing a lazy kiss to Elphaba’s clavicle before her breathing evens out. Dreaming, just like that.

No one’s ever called Elphaba perfect before.

But somehow, as she pulls her warm, sleeping companion closer to her, she honestly believes Glinda means it.


End file.
